is this last years honey, or are you guys already collecting this year?

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

good for you. i didn't realize you guys were going already. congratulations.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

Kathy, we are in the north (which is something like your south) and bees work all year round. It's right in the middle of winter, but usually our best honey flow is in winter. Summer is the wet season, and a few months leading up to the wet can be so hot and dry that there can be a dearth of flowers, and then a good wet can wash the nectar away. But generally we extract around then also.

We did learn a lesson last week, and that is to make sure the builder has made the extraction shed bee proof. Basically, it wasn't. But he's forgiven. He made a stand today to hold 3 supers of frames for extraction.

Thanks Kathy,I extracted half a dozen frames a couple of months ago and another half dozen two weeks back, was talked into exhibiting so I showed a jar of each.I have told Lone not to allow my bees near her flowers ( I do not want my honey contaminated)Ha Ha.Regards,Nico

I am also on the north 2 weeks ago I took off a full 9 frame super put a half height with new foundation its now fully drawn full and 3/4 capped last week i put on a second half height its also fully drawn and full of honey but not capped yet cant wait for the flow to start how do you keep up withought buying more and more gear.

You'd have to ask more experienced beeks. We do have drone kills here. If you lose a queen in winter though, there is a good chance there are a few drones somewhere around. Some years are colder than others; it's been a mild winter this year.

Amun,

Basically you have to buy more and more gear. You will need a real job to pay for it because the biscuit tin will never keep up with what you need! Do you have wax foundation on the half size supers? You can make cut comb if you do. It sounds like you are on a flow.

Already started to buy more gear think I will have to split this hive soon as the number of bees seems to be too high at the moment.opened up on sunday and have full combs of capped brood and lots of grubs not capped yet population is about to go nuts.going to get one of the other members to come have a look first so i dont stuff it up :)

Not much moving up here since May, I hope we have a good flowering soon. The dry is certainly affecting life in North Queensland.

I wouldn't be worried, Hanrahan. We haven't really had a time in the past couple of years here when there's been nothing in flower in the bush. After May this year there were still iron bark out and then the flow with the white malaleuca, which enabled us to extract. I don't think the malaleuca finished when some big gums have come out fully in flower. I'm not sure what they are called, but they are a large tree, white trunk. Something like a poplar gum but with straighter leaves. We did a paddock inspection today and apart from those gums, the grey box is starting. Every couple of trees has some flowers, and there are plenty of buds to erupt yet. There are big strips of box here and near your place too. There are also 3 flowers on the native orange. I don't know how good pandanus flowers are for bees, but they are fruiting so must have flowered recently.

If trees couldn't cope with 6 months of temperatures above 35 C and no rain then there'd be no vegetation here. I think the rain sets some species off and the dry sets others. It is very normal not to rain at this time of year. When I first got bees though, conditions were worse than now.

Sometimes in the next couple of months, the prickly pine, beefwood, black tea tree, and broadleaf iron bark come out. But this is not every year. There is something out along the highway. I thought it might be prickly pine, but there is no sign of flowering yet.

lone,I was generalising on the conditions in North Queensland. A lot of the state is now declared drought stricken, I will agree there is the odd flower out. The honey I extracted was capped before May, not much has come in since. I do not have any big stands of grey box on my property, there is a small stand on my neighbour's and some on the ridge to the north, nothing in flower.I have lived in North Queensland all my life and I am aware of the climatic conditions. Before you arrived your landlords had their cattle on my and my neighbour's property, there was not much grass left on theirs.Nico